Radicalized Overseas and Coming Home

How to combat the threat of domestic terrorism waged by Americans trained amid Middle Eastern conflict.

By

Mitchell D. Silber

July 7, 2014 7:48 p.m. ET

'I'll see you in New York." Those were Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's parting words to his U.S. captors in 2009 when he was handed over to the Iraqi government, which subsequently released him. Now, as the extremist group he leads, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, expands the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, concerns have grown that he intends to launch attacks on U.S. soil. Local and federal counterterrorism officials would be wise to take this threat seriously.